Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has given Hammers News his 13-word verdict on the new Sheikh Jassim West Ham takeover talk.
Qatari billionaire Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani has been widely reported to be eyeing West Ham should his attempts to buy Manchester United fail.
West Ham takeover rumours have intermittently bubbled to the surface ever since Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky bought a 27 per cent stake in the Hammers nearly two years aho.
Claims that Sheikh Jassim could switch attentions to West Ham as the Man United bidding saga dragged on were repeated by The Sun over the summer.
Respected BBC journalist Simon Stone, who has strong sources at Old Trafford, also name-checked West Ham when claiming Sheikh Jassim will likely look to buy another Premier League club should his Man United bid fail.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire gives Hammers News his 13-word verdict on new Sheikh Jassim West Ham takeover talk
So when he officially withdrew his bid for the Red Devils over the weekend, fresh links to West Ham were somewhat inevitable.
What does someone very much in the know make of such rumours, though?
Keiran Maguire is the author of the excellent Price of Football books and co-host of the podcasts by the same name.
Amid all the noise, he has been a leading voice on the protracted Man United saga. Maguire has discussed it at length is his latest podcast in which he reveals he has a ‘secret Sheikh’ source close to the situation.
Now Hammers News has once again spoken to Maguire about whether West Ham could be a serious alternative.
And football finance expert Maguire has given Hammers News his 13-word verdict on the new Sheikh Jassim West Ham takeover talk.
Man with ‘secret Sheikh’ source doubles down on verdict of Hammers being targeted by Qatari billionaire as ‘long shot’
“It is a long shot,” Maguire told Hammers News on Monday.
“Sheikh Jassim is very p****d off at present.”
So it seems the official withdrawal of the Man United bid has done little to change the landscape for West Ham.
Because it reiterates what Maguire has told us previously. We actually spoke to him at length on the same subject only last month.
Here’s a reminder of what he had to say then: “The Man United bidders switching to West Ham, it’s a long shot in my view,” Maguire told Hammers News last month.
“West Ham is an attractive prospect. But it’s significantly different numbers to Manchester United, in terms of income and earning potential.
“Man United are £600m per year, about three times that of West Ham United.”
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